Third conditional

The third conditional states what would have resulted if something different had happened in the past.

If you had been to Africa, you would have talked about its beauty

IfI’d received a ticket, Iwouldhave paid for it

Ifthey’d won the game, Iwouldhave been very annoyed

The form of the third conditional is past perfect, then, usually, ‘would’ + present perfect

In number 1, if the person had received a ticket (which suggests they didn’t), then they would have paid for the ticket. The event never happened (they didn’t buy the ticket) and so, along with other third conditional statements, the result was they would have done XXX (which in this instance, they would have paid for it).

There are instances where we can use continuous forms of the verb.

If they hadn’t walked to school, they wouldn’t have been arriving now.

ConditionalResult

Ifyou’d been rude Iwouldn’t have liked you

IfJohn had watched the video he wouldhave been crying now

Ifwe’d won the gamewe couldhave played in the final

If she’d been liedto she mightnot have cried

In some cases, ‘would’ can be exchanged for other modal verbs which may describe the result more accurately